Red blood parrot

My favorite fish, the red blood parrot! I wanted one so bad, but they seem as if some of them had a lil black spots on their tail, body, & lips seem to have a couple of black spots like they was wearing lipstick almost. I don't think it was normal, or healthy. There was about 7 nice size blood parrot fish in a small section tank in petsmart. Way too many, and the sales person said that's the way they suppose to look, it's normal! What do you guys think? Sorry I couldn't get a good picture cause they ran every time I came close to the tank. Not to mention my battery was dying

My concerns was that the week before the sales lady said that they had ick/black spots and she wouldn't sell them to me. So I see black spots on there new shipment, and I don't want my current fish to get sick. Should I be concerned, or take a chance?

"Taking a chance" is never really recommended. Petco and Petsmart have return policies if the fish is ill I believe and, if you QT them for a few weeks, there will be no risk of infecting your current. This is a generally recommended method, most especially for fish purchased from big box stores.

If you can do this, then I'd go for it, considering how long you have wanted one. I can't really see the black spots in the photo though. Someone else mentioned stress spots, I know nothing about that, or could they be healing ammonia burns? Ich cysts are whitish so it would be something else most likely.

You don't even really need an official tank to set up a temporary QT, there are some great articles on it somewhere on FL. Maybe someone else can link you as I cannot seem to find it.

I'm not a huge fan of blood parrots, their poor little mouths make me sad, but they look amazing in a group like that! Even if the tank they're in at the store is too small